Punching is carried out using a set of a punch and a die. However, the clearance between the punch and the die may be inappropriate for a different board thickness or material quality, resulting in the occurrence of burrs or the like. This prevents high quality processing. Thus, for punches and dies identified by the same tool number and used for processing for the same shape and the same size, plural types of dies may be prepared which have punch fitting portions of different diameters so that any of the dies, which is to be combined with the appropriate punch, can be replaced according to board thickness, material quality, or the like. Plural types of punches may be prepared which differ in, instead of clearance, shear angle or the presence of a corner chamfer shape around the periphery of a leading end so as to allow a change of combination of a punch and a die. Punches having rubber and metal strippers may be prepared so that a punch with a compatible stripper can be selected according to the quality of the material. Operators normally appropriately manage such a combination of a punch and a die at the site.
The conventional operation and management of combination of a punch and a die depends on the operators' experiences at the site. This may prevent appropriate management. For example, the operator may forget to carry out required setup, resulting in erroneous processing. Further, during a scheduled continuous operation, the combination of a punch and a die cannot be managed in terms of the clearance between the punch and die, and tuning and inspections based on know-how.
An object of the present invention is to provide a setup information generating device and method for a punch press which can generate setup information not only on replacement of a punch and a die with those having a different tool number but also on replacement of a punch and a die with compatible tools, that is, replacement among punches and dies identified by the same tool number and used for processing for the same shape and the same size, the setup information generating device also being able to generate setup information according to processing know-how or the like. Another object of the present invention is to allow an operator to easily perform an input operation for registering the associations between processing conditions such as board thickness and material quality and compatible tools. Yet another object of the present invention is, in particular, to enable the generation of information on a setup operation for changing clearance.